Board of Education Meeting, 1-14-2025

001All right. Good evening everyone is January 14th, 2025. And we are, um, opening up meeting tonight for the purpose of taking a motion to adjourn to executive session to discuss the employment history of one particular individual. No action will be taken, and we will return to open session at 630. So can I have a motion and a second? So the, um, motion is got on the second. All those in favor. Motion passes four zero and we'll be back at 630. All right. Good evening, everyone. Is January 1425. Um, and the board is returning from executive session, so I need a motion and a second to open our meeting. Melissa, on the motion that we ignore on the second. All those in favor? Motion passes seven zero. So, all over tonight's meeting with these budget. Issues

002to invite the United States of America Easter holiday, which stands one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay. So we'll move on to administrators. We'll move on to administrators. Since every other week starts up. Thank you. I'm actually going to reserve my remarks today. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Hancock. Uh, yes. Just one brief mark. I just want to recognize the team. Amelia, Malia and Sarah. They connected our new Georgia Academy back in December, which focused on, uh, passive to new services. I know it's been a little bit of time. Um, and, uh, next week, we have our next session is going to be, uh, facilitating that. Yes. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Carlson. I didn't mean to say a few brief comments. So this morning, our safety health emergency Preparedness

003Committee held a tabletop exercise. Uh, we're working to document that whole scenario in real time. And, uh, we're required to, uh, move based on each new set of fact patterns that arise. So we had about 40 participants overall. It was facilitated by the upper part of Northern Westchester Boces, uh Region Safety program. And we were also joined by uh, law enforcement in our sorrows, our attendance, as well as other, uh, sheriff's department personnel. And our Mr. Stevens joined us to participate. So it was a good opportunity for us to continue to practice as we always do. Uh, next, uh, topic is the, um, an important one. We have a big opening for the Victorian project. Um, that's big. So, uh, it's one of the larger portions of our overall capital project budget. So after Thursday,

004we will open bids and a much better picture with respect to our overall project budget. Uh, our, uh, um, uh, construction professionals will attend committee for its work session on Tuesday, February 4th. Uh, let's talk about, uh, where we stand with our state budget and where we need to be, uh, to move forward. Uh, so that'll be February 4th. Uh, the February 11th meeting. Those contracts will then be presented to the board for approval. Uh, last topic is the New York state budget. So, uh, the state of the state, uh, we asked and, uh, we expect to receive our school aid runs within the next couple weeks, which will give us a better indication of our finances, uh, budget. That concludes my comments. Okay. Thank you, Doctor Ghosh. Yes. Thank you. Good evening. I have

005two brief comments. The first is that we received some really exciting news this afternoon that, uh, Doctor Britney has let go, physics teacher at the high school and the science liaison has received the Presidential Award for excellence for mathematics and Science teaching for significant contributions made to the teaching profession in the areas of Stem science, technology, engineering, and math. Um, in addition to this very prestigious recognition, there's also a monetary award a long time required to share it. Um, but, uh, we're happy for her, and we certainly will hear more about this in the future. But for now, congratulations to doctor, because I think open is well-deserved honor. My second comment has to do with the middle schools to watch. Um, we are excited to be progressing throughout the next stage of the middle schools

006to watch process. Um, this is a designation by the state education department that is given to certain middle schools who are, um, committed to continual growth and, uh, excel in four domains academic excellence, developmental responsiveness, social equity, and organizational structure. So if you remember the tri state uh, program that came through last time we had a visit, I think about two years ago now. Um, it's a similar kind of approaches, a lot of upfront work, which has been spearheaded by, uh, Assistant Principal Alicia musso. Uh, Verna team submitted an extensive application and report in their prepping for, uh, this visit, which will take place on February 6th from 10:00 to 1030. So thank you to two board members who indicated they are available to attend. Uh, we have an opening for one more trustee, and

007I wanted to make it. So, again, thank you to Mr. Rodriguez, Mr. Beanboozled, Mr. Suarez and, uh, the whole team at my house for, uh, putting, uh, us on the map at the state level with this program. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Um, and just to mark my remarks, I just wanted to take the opportunity. Um, that certainly comes about at different times, but with everything that's going on in California, these horrific wildfires and the impact that it's having on the kids of their schools burned down, not just the kids, but the teachers whose life works were probably in those classrooms. Um, and we also hear, uh, very loud Christmas of a family here who lost their house in a fire. So it's just seems like a good opportunity to thank all of the first

008responders, not just those in California, but those who serve us here in Brewster. Um, especially on a on a, um, volunteer basis, which is amazing. So just an opportunity to thank them for what they do to keep us safe here in Tristan. And now we will move on to our student representative Sebastian. Welcome to new year. Happy new year to everyone. Um, I first year high school Students Against Cancer or Bicep raised $1,464 for the American Cancer Society. Childhood cancer in memory of Jim Schwartz, $1,941 for the Megan Leeper Scholarship Fund and $2,000 for the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Congrats to the JROTC and Field Rocha, who has been crowned the top marksman in the area, earning first place in area Championships. Sophia's first place finish finish. She is the first major just that invited

009to participate in and JROTC National Rifle Nationals in February. Be just. Guidance Department is hosting a Junior Class Parent Night on January 21st at 6:30 p.m., as well as the Algebra and Geometry midterms will be held on January 23rd. The Wizards are calling high number students, uh, during recess on January 21st. The Wizards game is on Saturday, February 8th and VHS uh, super. For Syracuse University project advanced students will observe sixth grade classes on February 24th and in support of the course requirement. City star, um is happy to announce this year's theater production, The Lion King Junior, where students are rehearsing weekly to prepare a wonderful show this spring. Big J for the Harlem Wizards. Visit our school last week to help us up for the Wiz Fit Challenge that will lead us up to

010the Harlem Wizards basketball game next month. And the Students at Sea Star participated in grade level assemblies this week. They're focused on how students can make positive change in their school, community and our world. JFK has the winter rotation of the morning program and club started last week. And thank you to all our staff for making this happen. AJ for the Wizards also visit our studios last week. I'm really excited for the wins that challenge. They're already registered and are on their way to winning prizes. The Wizards will return to JFK on the 23rd for an end of challenge celebration, and this Friday, the PTA is hosting a turtle themed paint night for 630 to 8:30 p.m. Cafeteria. Thank you. Thank you so much. All right, so we will move on to our presentation designation

011and discussion number 120 2425 Long-Range financial. Enough. Good gosh. Okay, so good evening. So, uh, each year we, uh, we have the long range financial plan, which is really a Kickstarter for our budget process. But it's also important because it allows us to look beyond this one year, uh, when you're selected every year. So the plan is based on broad assumptions based on, yes, results in anticipated, uh, conditions. So it's a five year plan, but we really focus our emphasis on the first two or maybe three years and also in the fourth and fifth year. Because naturally, over time, as you look at the future, the information becomes less reliable. Uh, the plan's located on our website. So by all means, if you go on our website and, uh, take a look, uh, but for

012this presentation, we're really gonna focus on the trends and the themes, and less so on the dollar amounts. Uh, what we know for certainty that the future is uncertain. Uh, for each of those reasons listed below, um, each year we use, uh, conservative estimates as we move to the future. So in most cases, future funding gaps in those half years, uh, are anticipated, uh, and not to be alarmed by that because, as the Comptroller's office acknowledges, most plans do it again is based on conservatism. Each year, as a reminder, Board of Education adopts a balanced budget. So we start with our instructional program. So vision 2026 has been guiding us for several years in each of these areas. Uh, teacher recruitment is an area that we're really focusing on as we have, uh, see, in

013post pandemic, an increase in retirements. Um, and we want to make sure that we are attractive to recruit highly qualified educators and not only to attract them, but also to retain them. Uh, so then obviously we have Mr. Hancock has been uh, uh, an area of emphasis on this couple of years. Now we move on to our enrollment. So like most school districts in New York State, we're experiencing a slightly, uh, declining enrollment that's roughly 1% a year. And that, uh, trend is actually consistent for about the past 20 years. Again, it's not unique to Brewster. It's really a theme statewide. And I would venture to guess, actually, that our growth is probably more stable than some of those other, uh, school districts in middle and upstate New York that are seeing significant, uh, decreases.

014So again, uh, we've got about for this, uh, current fiscal year of far right, uh, 24, 25 as of that, say, 2938 students. Now, each year, we request an independent demographer to reject, ah, enrollment, uh, based on, uh, live births, um, uh, cohort survival ratios, uh, projected housing growth, etc. And as you can see on the bottom row in 29, 30 are growing, uh, five years from now is anticipated to be, uh, a little over 20, 100 2922. Again, consistent with, uh, with, uh, most of the prior years. Uh, I also do want to note and step towards here, and I get it, but, uh, something that we're looking at as we enter the 26, 27 year is increase or a projected increase in kindergarten enrollment. So not this budget that we're about to prepare,

015but two budgets for now. Uh, something that we're going to need to keep an eye on. This number is based exclusively on live birth data. Uh, that's reported by the, uh, New York State, uh, Department of Health. Um, it doesn't necessarily mean that it has come true, because within those five years, from birth until kindergarten, um, you know, parents may move out of district. Uh, but based on the live births and the, uh, uh, the cohort survival ratio that's applied, we do expect to have a small, um, in, uh, kindergarten enrollment two years from now. Um, this current year, I should say this this year that's upon us. Um, we expect to have a decrease in our enrollment, and that's due to a very large, uh, senior class that's graduating, which will be replaced by

016a much smaller kindergarten cohort. Uh, so that's called, uh, kindergarten replacement. And that's, uh, what's leading to the district's, um, you know, steady, you know, slow and steady declining enrollment. Now we move into, uh, our revenue budget. So starting with the largest component of our revenue budget, property taxes, uh, we average a 1.88% in, uh, tax levy increase since the 12, 13 fiscal years when the tax code came into play. Uh, and what this, uh, chart is showing us is that the adjusted gross incomes of Brewster residents communitywide, uh, increased by an average of 4.1% a year. And compare that to the average tax levy increase of about 1.9%. And it shows that the school tax burden as a percentage of income is declining as a result of the tax cuts. So that's that's a

017good that's a sensitive question because I have seen so that uh, NTA is for thank you. Uh, is for people that live within first year Central school district. Correct. So, so if the, if anyone prepares their own taxes, uh, when you get to the New York State income tax form, it asks for you to enter your school code. And you, you you actually choose, you know, the school code. And that information is taken by New York state. And, uh, it actually plays into our foundation aid. You know how foundation aid is allocated amongst the 700 school districts? You know, using wealth is one of those measures by the state. But the, um, so on average 4.1% increase. But we've also seen over that same ten year period a huge increase in, um, socioeconomic disadvantaged kids

018coming into our district. So how can we have a 4.1 average, an increase of of income? Well, you know, I, I get what you're saying. And that's why I wrote community wide because it doesn't apply to everybody. So community wise, for all those who are reporting, you know, their income through their tax loans, community wide there's been an increase of 4.1%. Again, it doesn't apply to everybody. Some of them someone's uh income could have gone far greater than that. And also others could have gone down for more on that. Just like a lot, it is getting wider instead of, you know, a steady if we have an increase there in the future. So, you know, I agree with you, if it doesn't seem to make sense based on the other, you know, the other conditions

019of economically disadvantaged numbers going on, right? So over the past 12 years or so, we've always either met or beat the tax cut. So over the past I guess 12 or 13 years on average, we've levied $7.8 billion less than what that tax cut benchmark, uh, called for. So again, the tax cap is a formula that sets a benchmark. And what, uh, school district or a local government can can raise in property taxes. The tax levy is the actual amount that that is adopted within the budget. Um, so we beat the tax cut to the tune of about $7.8 billion over the past 12 or 13 years. Next largest component of our revenue budget, state and federal aid. Mostly it's really state aid. Uh, it's been unpredictable over the past few decades. So after the

020Great Recession in 2008, in 2000, 1011, we saw nearly a 13% decrease in state aid. Um, over the past three years, the state restored the foundation aid formula. And in 2223, we saw a 21% increase. In 23 four, we saw 2% increase. Uh, so now we've actually gotten back to the point where we've now, um, uh, achieved the foundation aid phase. And so we're on unlevel footing, right or wrong, because, uh, we, the state just asked for for the Rockefeller Institute to prepare a report for recommendations for changes to foundation aid. So, uh, we still don't know what the outcome of that will be. Uh, obviously, there's concern that there would be winners and losers, um, this year in the 25, 26 year, we don't anticipate there going to be any significant recommendations adopted and

021enacted in the 2526 budget. However, in future years, we need to state. Now, looking back on with the late Tim, you can see our state of the gas, which is obviously much less than it is today. Beginning in the 2122 year, you see a precipitous jump in our, uh, our state aid. And again, that's due to the phasing of that foundation aid. Uh, we remain steady, and we're projecting that we'll be steady through, uh, 2627. And you'll note a slight increase going into the 20 1728 year. And that is due to the anticipated building aid that we're going to receive once we complete our capital construction, uh, file our final cost reports, and then the state will begin to, uh, send us building to pay for the, uh, the debt associated with that construction. So

022is the cream color disgusting? When the cream colors, the vast green colors of future. So you didn't already talk about Rockefeller Institute doing a study. Is this now a subsequent like? Did they come out and say they would change things and now they've been asked to actually make recommendations? Uh, yeah. So this is so the study has been provided, but now it's on the legislature to incorporate any of those changes. So it's not an additional study. No. Okay. Yeah. So now we move into the expenditure side of our budget. So we are a service organization. So naturally 7,576% of our expenses are related to salary and benefits. All employees function under an employment contract, many of whom are, um, in a collective bargaining unit or union, uh, which provides for their, uh, their salaries, benefits.

023Uh, all bargaining units have agreed to contracts which limit the step increases and foreclose the alignment tax, and also require greater employee contributions towards health insurance. This is a perspective change. So as, uh, as existing employees retire, their replacements will be subject to these, uh, new salary schedules and increased health insurance contributions. Similarly, uh, on a state level, because the state runs the years and place retirement system and teachers teachers retirement system, generally speaking in place order after January 1st, 2010 to have longer vesting periods and greater employee contributions. And in effect, um, the employer contributions for school district governments are less than, uh, those existing employees. Just taking a look over the past 30 to 40. Yeah, yeah. So it says here perspective change. I've heard rumors, but purely up to three, six, six

024years. So I've heard rumors of a tier seven because, um, teacher shortage. Is that just a rumor I heard on the street? I've heard nothing. In fact, I've heard back to the office that they're actually going to scale back and move six into five, uh, to try to entice more people to come into the workforce. Okay, so. So six. Soup to five. So that would increase new teacher, um, benefits. And that gives us amnesty, right? Um, do we have any idea of. It's just it's just in conversation. Uh, there's been advocacy, obviously. Um, I think one of the newest, uh, resolutions, uh, have something to that effect. I think on his advice. And this was something he said he was going to say. Yes. Okay. So again, looking at the past, uh, 30. Uh, 30

025plus years, uh, as you can see, the 1990s and 2000 contribution rates were very well. Um, so the light blue bar represents the IRS Employees Retirement System that generally applies to non instructional staff such as, uh, the leaders, bus drivers, uh aides, food service workers, etc. Um, in the 20 tens, contribution rate on average was 16.7% of salary. Uh, the dark blue bar represents teachers teacher retirement system and applies obviously to teachers, teaching assistants and administrators. In 2010, its contribution rate was about 12% on average across a decade. Now, more recently in the last five years, those rates have come down. So the year rate on average for the past five years, 14% teachers, that's for five years, about 10%. Uh, now these contribution rates again are determined, uh, by New York state. Uh, the

026and they're based largely on the investment portfolio returns, which are also managed by New York State. So we're hoping for strong market returns, which will result in lower contribution rates in future. Uh, health insurance represents the largest component in our budget outside of the salary line. So, uh, health insurance, uh, is a huge, um, uh, challenge every single year, um, and health insurance costs nationwide announced for the first time outpace the allowable growth within our tax caps. And the growth in, uh, health insurance expenditures. Far off road improves the or outpaces the growth in our billable hours. However, glass half full because, uh, we participate in health benefits consortium, the KW umbrella, which are supposedly self benefits consortia. Uh, and we're showing here how, uh, our consortium compares to some of the other, uh, plans

027that are available to us in the dark blue bars, the statewide schools cooperative health plan. The red bar is the New York State health insurance plan. O u is our general services. Uh, so it's a consortium similar to ours obviously in our industry Boces. And as you can see, for the past five years, our plan has been less costly, uh, than any of those other alternatives. Capital planning and debt management. So, uh, each uh, each year or in every five years, really, um, we commit to a building condition survey. It's a requirement of New York State. It, um, it's really a check up for our school buildings, and we're required to report to New York state, uh, any work that's required in order to maintain our facilities and keep their functioning. Uh, so our last

028building efficiency was in 2020, and that was actually the precursor for our resubmission capital project that we're just really getting started with. Uh, we're actually going to have another building vision survey where it's required, uh, within this next school year, however, we received a waiver because we're, we're big construction. Uh, but the magnitude of this work often requires a significant investment, which usually takes the form of construction bonds. Also capital reserve. We've established our reserve and our utilization fund balance. So we've usually committed to capital, um, improvements through construction bonds. And we do that by timing the extinguishment of debt, which you'll see, uh, in a subsequent slide. And just to show, uh, you know, our most recent track record in 2009, which was the Wellsville School Edition project, we had a $28 million construction

029project the year that we issued the, uh, the bond for long term financing was in 1617. Tax levy increase that year was just 1.9%, $39 million bond, uh, approved by the voters in 2014, the year that we issued the bond 2021 tax levy increased just 1.5%. Um, so this, uh, most recent project that we just, uh, approved for the voters, just approved in March of 23, we're likely going to be bonding in 28, 29 year, uh, and you'll see the plan, uh, for that again in a subsequent slide. So, um, in years past, we talked a lot about our, our debt. And there's something called the constitutional debt limit. And our outstanding debt represents less than 8% of that of the amount allowable, uh, by local finance law, which is very low. Uh, and because

030it's so low, it also, uh, impacts our bond rates, right, so that we have a better bond rating, which allows us to get preferential, uh, interest rates when it comes time. Finally, for our, um, on the next slide, this last, uh, bullet here is really a, um, uh, commentary on the next slide. Uh, you'll see in 2034, uh, an opportunity for, for debt falling off, which will allow us to give it, uh, to, again, maintaining our, uh, our capital improvements. And we take this process on every year, generally speaking, every 77 to 8 years. Uh, and we've been doing that in perpetuity. So looking at 24, 25, uh, you can see, uh, we're slowly starting to phase in to, uh, to construction, uh, in 24 five and five six, slight increase in six seven. And

031now you see a, um, uh, meaningful increase in seven eight. If you recall, from about ten slides ago, we're going to be receiving additional building 8 in 27, 28 to align with our additional debt costs. That allows us to pay for this additional debt without, uh, increasing our having a significant increase on our tax levy. Um, in 27, 28, I'm gonna lose my mind. Uh, but in 27, 28, you see here the our existing bonds shrink. And that's because this represents the Wells Middle School, uh, construction debt from the 2009 projects so that those, uh, serial bonds that were issued expired, which allows us to commit a greater, uh, amount of our, um, our debt service to this new construction and maintain, like, a level, uh, a level of commitment or a, you know, small

032phase in commitment, uh, to begin paying off that new, uh, that new construction in 28, 29 is when we return the bond, anticipation of this to long term debt. And as you can see, they continue on for, uh, for the useful life of the project, which would probably be about, um, 11 or 12 years beyond, because recall, uh, we're starting construction back in, uh, in 20, 34, 35. Again, you see this blue bar completely disappear. This represents the JFK and CV star addition project from 2014. Those, uh, serial bonds expire there, and, uh, we're left with, uh, an opportunity to, uh, you know, again, continue to maintain our facilities and perform improvements. At that time, we may be roofs or Hvac equipment, etc. Uh, and again, in order to, to keep our buildings in shape.

033So now moving on to transportation fleet replacement planning. We've been at this since 20 1314, and it's a good thing we use a 15 year lifespan. So, um, every district, uh, has its own approach to replace and plan some, uh, use as short as an eight year lifespan. Uh, I would say that we're probably, uh, the highest using 15 year lifespan. Um, and based on that 15 year lifespan, again, we break it up into five year segments. As you can see, the number of vehicles that are age 16 and older and older. This information, of course, is a little stale intensive. Um, our our last presentation will be updating this in about a month and a half. Uh, but uh, our, our 16 and over, um, grouping has 18 vehicles. So obviously that's a big

034number that concerns us because what we believe is that in order to keep those busses on the road, or if we're not able to keep those busses on the road, the number of new busses that we're able to purchase to replace them will be outpaced by the number of busses that are coming off the road. Um, also, uh, not considered in this mix is the electric bus mandate, uh, by your state? Um, just a quick, uh, aside on that, we are waiting for our feasibility study to be performed by, um, our, our engineers. And certainly I'll be, uh, a presentation for the board in the conversation for the next two years, 2728 is the first year that requires, uh, commitment to purchase new vehicles that are electric. Uh, so we have about a year and

035a half, uh, in order to receive our report and begin preparations for that introduces the question that, like, um, I know that there's there's a lot of a lot of noise about this one in particular. Is there any I mean, we've kind of mentioned it already, but is there any value in, like getting Putnam County schools to do a feasibility study together? You know, we're similar in nature. And then does that type of thing get, you know, is there any value of you can be like, hey, you're looking at a rural or rural? We have some areas of rural mass and being able to send that to the state and be like, look at you. I'm assuming when they come back, they're literally going to be like, right, a, um, electric bus and going through,

036um, like going up through Patterson, like we're going to be dead in the water in terms of being able to charge that bus. Is there any value, like trying to look at it across Pelham County and being able to say, hey, State of New York, this is what you're asking us to do? Or is that just so far outside? No, not not at all. And in fact, um, other northern Westchester Boces on our behalf, um, commission an RFP request for proposal process in the selection of, uh, the engineers that are performing these visibility studies. So Brewster's actually using the same engineers that are that are performing Carmel's I would imagine, without I haven't spoke to them yet, but I would imagine they're also doing may access valleys, um, which is actually going to make their

037job a lot easier because they're all we're all a nice thing, you know, nice customers. Um, so, you know, once we do have the lay of the land and all this, all of us, um, you know, there's always strength in numbers, and then you turn it over to a news outlet and you're like, hey, this is this is the type of thing that is, is not sustainable. Um, um, for electric, the turn of a bus, uh, you know, it all over. It's it's know, there's there's no doubt it's going to be an incredibly costly endeavor. And, um, you know, as I mentioned earlier, any, you know, significant, um, you know, capital improvements, we usually, um, um, fund through construction bonds what we've read or, you know, what's been publicized is that a lot of school

038districts have attempted to go out with electrification plans, whether it be retrofitting, uh, you know, a bus garage, uh, or purchasing electric vehicles. And even with the rebates, you know, which offsets a lot of the cost. The communities have voted it down. So that's a challenge because on on the one hand, the state is telling you to do this. On the other hand, you're voting. You're saying no. So where does that leave the school district? How do you like this? So it's going to be very interesting over the course of the next, you know, two years. And I'm sure we'll be hearing some of that within this, uh, state budget that's that's underway. Did the Rockefeller study suggest that the state funded also? Correct? Yeah, that's going to go over. Yeah. Thanks a lot. So

039similarly, we have an instructional technology replacement plan and we don't have a slide in here, but we also do the same for our facilities department. Uh, and in fact, you'll see on uh, tonight's agenda, we actually have a disposal of, uh, as we replace some of our aging facilities, department equipment, uh, as well. So we're really, um, you know, looking ahead and planning for, uh, replacing, uh, obsolete, more than obsolete equipment, again, that the front loader as well, over 20 years old, certainly served out, uh, a useful way for us with respect to instructional technology. Uh, the jumpstart we received with the smart school. Back in, uh, 1415. We we wisely, um, held that money and applied it over a four year period, purchasing not $400,000 and some devices, recognizing that each of these devices

040likely has about a four year, um, replacement term. So we're able to stagger it. And now, um, uh, each year we're replenishing and, you know, replacing those devices as they become obsolete. Uh, once this lecture was expired, we, um, issued a bunch of, uh, installment purchase agreements. So we borrowed $400,000 and purchased that equipment, paid it off over a period of four years. However, in doing so, we were incurring interest and issuance, uh, costs by doing that. More recently in this 24, 25 budget. We will actually incorporate that into our operating budget, where we have $400,000 allocated for the direct purchase of this equipment, thereby saving on, you know, future interest and issuance costs as well. So you can see moving forward into 25, 26, we're actually going to have some relief, uh, as some

041of those older, uh, iPads and so on, a purchase agreements. So $100,000 expire, uh, until the 27, 28 year. And we're fully embedded, uh, in our budget. Uh, and we perform the same process with our busses. So, as you recall, we usually had a prop two for for purchasing our busses. Paid them off, paid off on anticipation notes over a five year period. But with that, we also paid the interest cost and the issuance expense in those loans. So this is obviously a much more, uh, fiscally responsible approach itself. But how come we don't lease our variable back? Started. How can we not lease our computer equipment? Um, they, uh, go out of, um, usefulness in such a short amount of time that, uh, the lease is essentially the same amount as, uh, as mine.

042So. There. There isn't really a cost benefit to to use the devices for that. I hate you. I know I'm not supposed to do that, but I did have the answer. I'm sorry. Um. Um. Is that okay? Yeah. So why? Because our costs, our purchase costs not go up. Well, I know our kids are going down, but still, you will think that there will this again, this is generalized. So you know so I'm between 21 to 24. We're still up to 400 K. Yeah. Well we up because we use you know we always use that $400,000. That was that was the amount, you know whether we can purchase just using round numbers for other devices in the first year. Then next year we can only purchase 396 and then maybe 390. And then to a,

043you know, the number of devices that we're able to purchase may have diminished. But we always kept to consider that, uh, that $400,000 or uh, in future years, you know, again, we we may need to increase that. Um, but just for consistency, in the past, we've always limited to just that one. Okay. So future challenges. So obviously there are internal and external factors for us to consider internally recruitment and retention for both uh construction also non instructional position. So bus drivers were constantly constantly in the bus drivers. It's not unique to Brewster. It's a it's a nationwide uh concern um where we need to recruit and retain uh, bus drivers in addition to teachers. Uh, sustainability of pre-K p-tech programs after initial grant funding expires. So, uh, we're certainly making sure that we are, uh,

044positioning ourselves to be able to absorb any of those program costs that are occurring after grant funding requires. Ideally, funding would continue in perpetuity. But, um, you know, again, that's something that's beyond our control, uh, increase voter apathy and lower turnouts in support of the annual school budget. So basically, once the tax cap came into play, there was a significant decrease in voter turnout. Uh, and energy, um, our concern is that over time, the yes folks may stop showing up and no votes are very consistent. So, um, even if we do have a, uh, budget that's generally acceptable to most people, um, because of apathy and people not turning out, you know, we may find ourselves with the, uh, budget vote, the, uh, uh, voted out externally. The, uh, we're concerned about the fit phase

045out of federal funds in New York state budget. There are many competing interests within New York state. Uh, the MTA, MTA and, uh, Medicaid and other other, uh, issues that are, uh, facing the state as a whole. The, uh, any adjustments in foundation aid formula, which may lead to a decrease in state aid. So, again, the Rockefeller Institute, um, recommendations, we don't know what what impact, if any, it will have on the unfunded mandate requiring the transition to electric busses. Again, I expect us to hear a lot more in the coming months about that. Uh, and reduced interest revenue as a result of future Federal Reserve rate cuts. So, um, you know, while it's been great and we've been earning a lot of interest on our, uh, cash account over time, if the, um, that

046continues to cut those rates is going to require us to reduce our revenue budget, uh, which is also a result of our expenditure budget, which I have a question with tech, um, starting to take off, are we expecting less kids to attend Boces, therefore having a shift costs instead of increased us? It could happen. And there are definitely some overlap between the programs and the courses that are offered. Um, we have asked ourself that same question as we try and increase our CTE program over time. Um, we don't know the answer to that yet. Um, we'll have to make sure we do is through, you know, the administration, through, um, our guidance counselors to make sure that students are really clear. So it was similar and different and really just things about each program so

047that we can allocate those resources so that students can choose wisely. And the resources are allocated, which is what we paid for per child. We do there is a um, a three year rolling cost. Um, that we, that we pay based on seeds at certain points of time throughout um, throughout the year. So does a little bit. So just because of the relevance of it, you know, um, we're seeing a huge shift into the trades, and we know that a lot of our kids can't get into the 40 spots because there are some so few seats and there's so, um. There's just not enough room. I did not get very many seats across. I just got some of the numbers today, so I'll share that with you guys once I have wrap my head around

048it. But, you know, like some school districts have, um, 11 kids the first year has one in the more coveted program. So, you know, we're not going to get that preferential treatment we are putting in steam. Last. We are moving towards having more seat. Easy. How can we go after some of the more higher paying, um, solutions? And you guys have done a really good job, um, um, working with colleges that have programs that you are bringing down to our high school, Suny Del High has an electricians program. Like are there opportunities, you know, um, to be able to look at some partnerships like that if we're doing this investment in our buildings and in our programs, are there ways that we can actually be able to service our kids and bring those really high

049paying, um, labor jobs, uh, and opportunities in there? Yes, yes, yes. Um, one quick thing about those years. We have our, um, superintendents meeting on Thursday, and on that, um, agenda is a new space utilization plan that they are going to roll out to us. So that's that's one piece of it. And, you know, the more that we can move on campus, the better for cost reasons, but also for students to be able to stay in their, uh, in their home school. Um, one of the things that we have talked a lot about and incentivized, actually, in the in the last PTA contract negotiations was, um, workplace learning coach, if we can get, um, those positions in our high school and we can start to build on what Mr. Suarez has done with P-tech. But

050those, uh, relationships with local businesses where we can say, here's a an internship and shadowing experience that can be for credit, we can integrate it as part of the coursework at the high school. And they can also go out. So there's a way that we can do that with local organizations. And what we found is that, um, our community is more than willing to partner with us. Um, and then your idea about about colleges. Yes. And we can continue to explore that. And what we've been really looking at is, um, the career data that the students have been giving us over time and say, you know, what is it that students are interested in exploring? What do we not have in our program currently, and what are the opportunities out there in order to bring

051that, bring that to us so all options are open. We want to utilize spaces best that we can, and at the same time, look at all these other opportunities that we can match on to. And, and when we, um, presented a little bit about, um, you know, the Blue Ribbon Commission and even regionalization and what we can ask for through that, things like funding for CTE, more CTE teachers and job coaches where we can expand those partnerships and opportunities. What is what we're going to, um, you know, vigorously pursue because that's right, aligned with what we have in our strategic plan and what we know that our, our students want, need. So I think that that's great. And the other thing is, is that, um, you know, there are so many opportunities that we can

052help bridge. So, you know, the one that is at the bottom of prospect, the labor union that's at the bottom of that meeting as opposed to, um, you know, I don't know, we do have a large, um, connection to the ironworkers union being within the bounds of most journalists that have that facility. So I'm certain that there's there's opportunities there. Um, and then there's, you know, some really rigorous tests like, um, to become an apprentice in the, uh, electricians. So, yeah, I'm going to go become an electrician. But that math class, you know, I wasn't the strongest student. And now there's this math test. How do we look at, you know, some opportunities? Um, you know, you helping our kids pass that math test, uh, to get into, you know, the higher paying, uh, unions.

053Because even though we're not necessarily we don't need to have to have the services and the expertise in our building to be able to teach. You can't have to become an electrician. But we certainly have the expertise to be able to say, I've looked at that math test, and this is how we can actually help prepare this bucket of kids who might be interested in that in passing some of these, uh, some of these tests. Yes. And the dream is to incorporate all of that. You know, we have a business teacher who can, um, do some, um, business related courses to work and that everything from resume to interview to, um, all facets of facets of what does, uh, business. Mr. Carlson's favorite position that we added over the last few years? Uh, but also

054to say and the the flexibility in the requirements that are coming down for students to be able to graduate with the Regents exams is one way. That's a huge opportunity for our students. They'll need math credits, but those math credits don't necessarily have to be tied to a Regents exam at the end of it. And so then that opens up a world of possibilities for us to say, okay, if this is a pathway you are interested in exploring, what is that math that you might need in order to pass that apprenticeship exam or to get into that program or to, you know, go on to the community college or for years, you know, whatever the pathway happens to be. But it opens up a world of opportunity for that. So I. Okay. So just in

055summary, obviously the plan allows us to identify emerging issues, adapt by applying power balancing measures and resolve issues before anything else. Uh, so again, as I mentioned earlier, the plan will go on our website. Take a look. Uh, also on our website, as we ensure the budget stays in our budget one on one resources which have been, uh, revamped, I believe last year, uh, we met, uh, as a finance committee. We didn't review this, uh, this level of detail. We share the long range financial planning with our our finance committee. We thank them for their review of it. Uh, if we. Have any questions? Thank you. I will move on to our second presentation to extend the school learning outcomes. Thanks for the opening act. Has your prime Minister, Sheila. Um. We are going to

056dive now into, um, part two of our state schools in November. You'll remember that this is Andrew Aiello and Miss Nelson giving a presentation on literacy update. Um, this presentation will deal with the other half of the house. So we have math K-12. That's a cross-curricular result when it comes to Regents exams and reading from high school. So this is Andrew Aiello, and I will tell you this presentation and I thank her for my sharing is caring. All right. Uh, vision 2026, our strategic plan. Obviously, academic programing is the core of what we do. Not all of these other components are interrelated and influence our academic, uh, outcomes. In addition to a results statement under the umbrella of academic programing. We're really thinking that the conversation we just had around, uh, uh, holistic, uh, curricular

057offerings and making sure that students are set up for their post-secondary success. We know that this year, as we do each year, each of the last five years, a district goal typically is around improving student learning. Um, so what you'll hear tonight is, um, how we're using, how we're making sense of the student, uh, outcome data that, um, that you'll see and how we're using it to, uh, push students towards, um, their future goals through whether that be, um, timely intervention and support or offering, uh, courses that may allow students to pursue, um, visuals. So the agenda, um, and the data that you will see, as I mentioned, that user rate math assessments, um, and some of the traditional measures that we've seen, um, regions and apps, uh, will also see some, uh, local measures

058that we've added uh, several years ago that help to give us a more, a more holistic view, uh, student learning. So the goal for tonight, um, is to, um, get a better idea of how we use student learning data to gauge progress and to inform our decision making, um, how we're looking at student learning in a really holistic, um, and balanced way, um, and how we're pushing ourselves, um, as a system to continually get better at figuring out how to do so. So, Missus Andrea, I was going to jump into Kate mathematics. Um, and before we get into the data itself, we're thinking about, um, students who are at the center of all that we do, obviously. Right. And so if we're thinking about a students mathematical story and what that looks like throughout their

059pre-K through 12th grade career, there are different measures that we pull from in order to gauge their progress and to see where they are. Um, so we mentioned some of the um, assessments, for example. Um, the star assessment, which we know is, is normed. Um, the classroom and interim assessments, which we are getting more and more aligned. Um, but then of course, what is it that students bring to the table? How do they see themselves? What's what's their self-efficacy efficacy when it comes to, um, their mathematics? Um, how do they use their mindset and approach? So all of these pieces come together when we think about the picture of students and families and how we help them to address. Okay, so diving headfirst into interim assessments, our paper five, um, administers interim assessments three times

060a year in, um, in different, uh, different performance bands based on standards and where kids should be at that particular moment during the year. Uh, these are not word problems. They're all computation. It's not about looking at where students are compared to an end of year standard. It's looking to see where they are expected to be at that point in time. So, uh, the upper left hand corner starts off with the fall assessment that was um, most recently given. But also looking back at the last two years. And you can see that over time we have had growth in terms of, um, students coming in and demonstrating proficiency in that level three level for the blue and the green, um, bands there when they are taking that fall interim assessment moving forward into the winter

061and looking to see, um, it's nice to see that our students not only maintain, but we also add to the number of students that are, um, or the percentage of students that are demonstrating proficiency on those interim assessments. Um, interim assessments are ones that we have created. They are another measure for our teachers to evaluate not only where their students are, but how they need to adapt their teaching to varying degrees of students going forward as well. Next up we have a cohort view of our star assessments. So um, each particular. Uh, block there. It looks at the current grade. And then also how they performed going back through the last, um, three years. So starting off with our third grade, you can see, um, as we look at them as first graders, um, and

062where they were falling in their beginning of the year benchmark or star in terms of mathematical ability and then how that also shifts over time as they move up, um, through the grade levels. It's important to know that, you know, as students with out there's more reading that's involved, even on a math assessment through, um, uh, there's far more computation taking in application. It's not just straight calculations. Star. And so that accounts for some of the shifts that you may see within those colored bands. Again, the green in the blue unit, they are at or above, um, the benchmark at that point in time. And this is according to our uh, district benchmark data. In order to get this cohort view, we don't have the option of bringing it to the state. Uh, so just

063for those of you that are you are just following a little piece of information there about that. Um, but the trends would be somewhat similar as well if you were looking at, um, it more to the state. So again, you can see as our students come in and, um, continue to progress forward, they do maintain there is some growth to it. Um, but uh, it's in itself also increases in difficulty as they go up. And this is an adaptive assessment as well. So as students are doing well on the assessment when they're taking it, they are encountering more difficult questions as they go. So it does adapt to them. It does adapt each time they take it. So it looks at where they, uh, took where they ended at the last time in their proficiency

064and then adapts to the kinds of questions they would see on the next, uh, taking of that particular assessment. So, um, you know, I try to look at this on my phone to give you those questions, but it just wasn't, uh, able to to read it on my phone. But it does look like third and fifth grade have lost momentum and lost capability, whereas fourth grade is just the most bizarre because it's almost like everything is is is identical. I'm familiar with star in terms of the and obviously moving up in rates, but it does look like we've lost ground on certain degree. Um, and so like what what knowledge do we gain from some of that kind of stuff. Oh, you know, like this, this area or what is it that this is telling

065us that we need to now connect some dots to be able to figure out how we keep these kids sustainable and growing versus, you know, ground short. So, uh, one of the things that we're able to pull from star is called instructional reportage. So for each child it will break down where their strengths are, where their needs are, and give the teacher feedback on where, uh, they can focus their instruction for each particular student that they have in their class. We are we have really dedicated our PD, our our time this year to looking at differentiation. Part of differentiation is taking data like this and working with teachers on how do you create that small group piece within your classroom based on skills, not just levels? Um, in years past, we may have looked more

066at, oh, okay, all these kids are in the red. So they're, you know, they're my right group. Now we're looking more granularly at what is the skill that a student or group of students need targeting on so that we can support them in that and that they can hopefully continue to gain and progress forward. So that's one of the pieces that we really have been focusing on this year, particularly at the elementary level, as we look at starting again. So I love that micro individual student level. Are we also able to look at from a macro level like, hey, listen Scott, you're not good at teaching these parameter like you're not good at like the lesson in geometry. Um, and you know, um, Jamie, you're not good at the lesson in, you know, basic algebra.

067And how do we key up so that we're making certain that, um, as a whole, that teacher has a view about where if if they're kids grouped and said nobody really did well in this area, and now we need to make certain that you are better at how you explain this math specialty. Um, and you know, how how do we how are we making sure that we get that assistance into the classroom to that teacher? So as. We've done small forays into that type of work. We generally have looked at it through New York State assessment data, which we can get a nice report that shows how Jamie did as a teacher in her class compared to the grade level, and then also compared to, say, like a region, right. Um, and we've done we've

068taken some small steps to start looking at that. Uh, within star, that would be one of the next steps we want to take as we really reflected on what staff needed, and we really tried to drill down with staff for surveys and feedback on where particularly they wanted to focus their professional development within that school of differentiation. A lot of it came down to you, we're getting these these assessments, and I know that I can get this report, but I'm really not making, um, I'm not making you say everything that the star feedback can give me. And that's really where we're trying to develop all of our skills and lenses so that we can have discussions such as that, because that's really where you want to focus the PLC discussion. Um, looking at like, all

069right. Yeah, you did really well teaching addition, but that did not work well for multiplication. So how do we approach it? What did we do? Was it, uh, a resource issue? Is it a, you know, a development issue? What is it? So those are the next steps in conversations that we want to have. Um, thanks. So moving on to the state assessment data, looking at grades three through five, uh, number of students who tested, generally speaking, in grades three through five, you tend to have a pretty strong showing of students to test. So you can see about 95% of the third grade last year participated in state assessments. Uh, we tend to get that drop off and that decline in number of participants as students move forward. Uh, we kind of all become aware of

070the opt out option and, uh, some, some are very good lobbyists to, to get their that opt out note. So that accounts for, you know, the dip that in grade four and then in grade five as well. And when we look at proficiency levels. So students, you achieved a level 3 or 4 on the New York State Math exam last year and race three through five, um, relatively strong showing in third and fourth grade. Again, to your point, when we talk about looking at a cohort of students that grade five did not perform as strong as the other three levels. And so, again, as we dig into some of that state data and overlay that hopefully with some of our star data and interim assessment data, trying to tease out a, a deeper, uh, picture

071of what instructional league we are missing or not meeting for students. Any questions on the state assessment data? 335. The one thing that I think would be helpful is, and I know the test changes every year, but just to see previous years. So like this group of three through five, you know how did that they do the last year. How did they do. I think we, we I think we had that actually made perfect and within a couple of years. Yeah. So uh, just before we get to that, hopefully I take a quick look at our, uh, what we would call special populations. So looking overall, uh, about 51% of students in grades three through five were proficient in taking, um, the math test last year when we rate that further into our special population.

072So regular Ed, about 58% of our students are proficient. Um, but as we start to look at students with IEPs, students who are multilingual learners and students who are economically disadvantaged, obviously we have a lot of work to do within those special populations. Can I just ask a question? And honestly, related to this, I maybe require what you mentioned, you know, the opt out and how the number of kids actually go down. Are you able when you look at this because because then we have the kids who take it and we have this huge assumption that they're all trying their best. And I, you know, don't think of that particular realist. Sure. So is there a way to identify, you know, through scores or knowing that kid like that's not so you can see that

073in the data. Like just something that's just so off season that not sometimes. Yes. When you, you see a student perhaps who is really, really strong, you know, day in and day out and then they're turning up with a one and you're trying to figure out what happened there. Uh, one of the things that Wells did last year, Alicia mancuso, one of the benefits to moving towards computer based testing is that you are able to see how long a student spends actually taking the test. And so what it is a man who started last year was she kept track of that. And looking at the amount of time students are actually engaged. And in looking at that, you definitely see that there is a, a, a number, a significant number of students who probably did

074just click through, you know, and, and speed through that exam. Um, in terms of, you know, actually seeing, you know, how much time they spent on each individual question, we can get that we can get that overall, um, glimpse. And it's generally in that moment, um, it's not like I can print a report now from the state on that, but on testing day, you're able to see, um, before you kind of certify and submit and the, um, the exams, just how long each student took taking that test. Thanks. Discussions about the opt out. Um, so I know in years past my hundred letters coming home, I think from the district, kind of an encouraging parents like these can be the benefits of your child sitting through a test and, um, the resilience, resilience and all

075those things that come with it. And that's something that can be done as a district to, like coming from the building level or possibly the classroom level, or talking to the kids, even the little ones, about, you know, the benefits of sitting here in the top. So I don't know what they do if they don't take the test, but making sure that that's not working. Um, I, I actually disagree with someone that those like, uh, like, uh, awful thing of compliance and regulatory. If you tell people, um, some of the parents like, oh, I don't want you sitting in a sitting in that, like, if you don't, if you don't know as a parent and like, I know that there's there's notices and stuff. So if you don't talk about it like, oh, then maybe

076you get more kids by not alerting them to the fact that they could opt out. Although all my children know and every year they ask in there, you know, sucking up to going into the test. Well, that's yeah, as a parent too, but it does come and talk on the bus. So when the kids are saying all your parent wants to do the same, you know, and one of the things that we so. I agree with both of you. Right. Um, and we've done different things through the years. We we've gone from it's so serious to we don't want to put too much pressure to kind of try and find that balance. And we even have these conversations now around something like the star assessment and seeing, you know, you can have his child wins

077through that star assessment. And then that score is not really indicative of what they are capable of in trying to have those conversations within the classroom on, you know, no matter what you're doing, if you're sitting down to to do an assignment or to take a test or whatever it is, you should be putting forth your best effort. And throughout life, we have all sorts of different types of tests, right? Uh, and really trying to just center that discussion around best effort. Uh, and, you know, with parents too, it's it is a nice measure to be able to just see how your child is doing compared to, um, state in that moment. You know, we we always say it's never apples to apples year to year. Um, but it can be difficult to find that

078balance. The other piece to that we definitely see is anyone who is unaware that they can opt out on day one is very well aware that they can opt out on day two. And so we do have, um, reflected in the numbers, a number of children who will sit on day one and come in and opt out on day two. And they're getting scored already taken on day one. So, uh, you know, and unfortunately, there's no, uh, the state says if a student hops out, doesn't matter when, um, they're opting out, whether it's day one, day two forehand. Um, there's there's nothing that they can do in terms of saying nope, sorry to late. You have to go through, you know, with the exam. So that's definitely something that we see as well. And those

079scores are reflected in. Yes. Because there are some districts that have very close to 100%. Yes. Taking it. So like what can we do to increase that. Great question. I know I understand your house, but just thinking about it just so that again, I don't even care about what I do on it or whatever, but just teach kids like. Sometimes you just sit through and you're going to be okay because you're going to take Tesla last week, right? You know, actually, I haven't taken a test to know how to stop it. That's all. Is there any rejections with the dual language program that affect the numbers on certain groups of the English language learners? If we had that just told us that the classification, because the time, the age of the school system as opposed

080to coming up with the model. So with the two way dual language, you have both native English speakers, um, in class with students who are, um, native Spanish speakers and um, depending on if this if a child is a native Spanish speaker, um, depending on what their proficiency level is, um, within within ELO, they may be able to take the math assessment in Spanish having um, where their profession proficiency level is. Um, but most students are testing it in English. And so in terms of looking at what the dual language program impact would have on that, I think we're a few years out and I don't know that we would necessarily see. Um, I would hope we would not see a big disparity in that because they are getting the same instruction in English and

081Spanish. You know, that they're moving forward. So if if tomorrow is day three, you know, and we're doing, um, one by two, uh, multiplication in tomorrow's state and Latin English in tomorrow's day. Four. And we're doing two by two. That's in Spanish. So, you know, there is momentum within those classrooms themselves. And the way that instruction should be occurring is that, that that momentum is kept going. So, um, just looking at I'm jumping ahead a little bit because, you know, you can look at it and say like, you know, I know my kid throws off this test every year. Um. Primarily despite me because I make and take it, or I make any of them take them. Um, but we've got homes. Yeah, but in looking at the comparisons with the school. So one thank

082you for putting that in because. Excellent. Yeah. Um, and you know, looking at this one and then the, the six through eight where we just fall off of a cliff, you know, this is where it does, you know, to Cynthia's point, you know, like, I don't know how someone who's got three, three years of almost identical scores, that's that is actually impressive. And I have to say, the fourth grade test must have been easier than any of the others because every school has portrayed as, uh, certain almost every. But like, this is where it comes down. Whether you have kids that are dropping out in, you know, every school district, this is where it starts to become level in terms of, you know, Carmel and Mega Pac can have just so many kids opt out

083on day two versus day long, or, um, have the same number of kids that don't care and so forth. But this is where you start to be able to see. So, you know, it's a good mix because you have the so some up, some socioeconomic things, a little bit of socioeconomic mix. But these schools really do either they pair with us because they're within our county. And the same scenario like um, constitution of um, groupings of, you know, like my parent does corporate work and my parents a nurse, my parents a teacher, and that type of mix versus others that have, um, as diverse, um, nature of students, um, as us. But this is, this is like our measuring stress. Um, and the thing so, you know, we, we held our own, but definitely working

084on hospitals like Bedford has a lot of challenges in their district and has great, great. So first I'm going to say is probably the district with the least challenges across the board, um, on this. So again, for them, um, but like they impact, you know, like may impact really you know, has some, some strength there. Um, and are we understanding I know we don't like and like data wise, but anecdotally do we understand why we're just kind of middle of the pack versus being able to, to be, um, some of these higher levels. So that's an area for us to dig, I think, deeper into what it has come up in some of the conversations that we've been having just within Brewster itself. So as, um, as staff is looking at this data, as, you

085know, they're looking just at cohorts as they come through, right? And having those conversations at the K-12, you know, level as well as, um, broken up into that elementary secondary piece in how what are you seeing, you know, at the the furthest end of that back. So as you know, the, the transition points, let's say, right. And then how does that map back? So what are we missing. You know further down if, if we're saying that kids in 12th grade are, um, lacking any skills or not taking these particular classes, has that math back down into the sixth grade, you know, what are we and then further back from there and then, you know, reaching out to our neighboring districts and taking a look at what are they doing? Because you're right, we have we

086picked these particular districts because, um, they are close to us. They they definitely, we felt were a, a better, um, mirror to us than others. And, uh, certainly there's getting some things really right. And so what can we learn from them that we can hopefully take and, you know, apply here in Brewster because there is a lot of potential in a lot of area for growth. And people are hungry to do the work too. And we can have that, um, shared knowledge among districts. I think in the end, just everybody to get stronger teachers, stronger pedagogy and stronger students. And I think the there needs to be a lot of analysis between this slide and the, the 6 to 8 where we have all of a cliff. Um, and so and what what would we

087pass up to see that level these other school districts are holding strong and being, um, fairly consistent in Carmel went up, you know, a lot. But really being able to understand where what happened here, um, compared to, you know, what we know 3 to 5. So. Let me click forward I. We have we we think well there is one possible explanation for it. Um doesn't answer everything uh, but definitely is a contextual piece. So, uh, just to get into this six through eight, uh, math assessments, um, you can see again, if we're looking at the grade six, grade seven, and then the fourth bar grade, eighth grade eight that are those are the New York State math assessments, those six through eight math assessments. And you can see the participation level in that, uh, definitely

088falls off as we go forward again. Um, sixth grade, a little bit, um, smaller group of students who tested compared to fifth grade, um, that a bigger drop off in seventh. Uh, we tend to see a big opt out in seventh grade, um, for whatever reason. And then further in eighth. Um, something to make note of is that the grade seven region. So these are students that are double advanced students. Um, 19 kids tested. Um, you know, everybody was taking it tested. Um, and then we also have our grade eight regions. So we do not make kids double test and other districts may. So the student is taking the Regents. They are not also taking that state exam. And other districts also don't have advanced math. I don't think someone has advanced math in US.

089So you don't have their kids are all taking that math assessment as opposed to. Right. So which has embedded honors? I know definitely in um, uh, ninth and 10th for math and science. So then as we take a look at our proficiency again, um, you know, looking at where we stand again, our C scores are definitely not strong. There's a lot of room to to grow there. Um, our students are advanced students who are taking those regions. They are doing well. They're extremely strong. Um, but again, they're not also then taking seventh or eighth grade state exams and just taking the Regents exam. And, uh, another thing to point out is that when our students are engaged in the New York State math assessment. So for our all of our kids in 6 to 8

090who are taking that, um, our students who are in those advanced classes are being pulled by their teachers for Regents Prep, so that time is useful to them. And that definitely is, um, supporting, you know, their growth in their proficiency when they take the Regents a little bit in a few weeks after the state exams. And again, just taking a look at our special populations. Uh, our students, um, overall, are, um, not. Where we would like to see them. And, um. These are our kids again, who are just taking the New York State six through eight exams. Um, but overall, even if we're just looking at the overall column or the regular eight column, um, our students are not performing where we would expect them to be and want them to be. And then again,

091as we look at our special populations, the similar, uh, trend as what you saw in 85, and that's definitely areas that we need to focus on so that we can make sure that our needs and our learners are getting the support that they need. And then again looking at other districts. Um, so, Jamie, when you when you were asking, you know, how do you, um, uh, have other districts maintain and still have strong showing, um, for this one possible reason is that, uh, a district like Summers or Carmel or may have had are having kids double test. So if they are taking a Regents, they are still sitting for the New York State exam. Um, I think it's funny information to stand because if you're like, okay, great. You know, Carmel sitting there and they

092got their their evidence gets in there as well doing that. And I hope I'll be able to inform you that the super next week can do. You guys can go with that. That's great. Absolutely. And if I could just say one thing right. So because you. Yeah. And so these are you know, these are similar districts are now the same. Okay. So if we look at like for example, for our economically disadvantaged students with Bedford's economically disadvantaged students, um, that's a data analysis that we need to pull in order to see. Um, I know that may impact and Carmel don't have a level of LGA for economically disadvantaged that we have. So there are definite comparisons and this is our peer group, right that we want to pull from. We need to further slice it

093up so that we can look and see, okay, what are those comparisons within the subgroups. And what do they they are better than what are they doing that that might be like a different idea to I don't know for sure. Um, uh, okay. So uh, to look at our proficiency rates over time. So Jeannie were asking about this before, uh, this looks at the three year, uh, view of our students. So you can move through our cohorts there. If you look at our current grade five, uh, at 42% proficiency last year, you can see where they were in, um, fourth grade, they had 51%. And then, you know, third grade, 44%. So, um, you know, again, taking a look at what does that data tell us, what is and, you know, is this a matter

094of increasingly difficult, more difficult standards, um, changes in instruction? What is it that's happening that is showing us whatever trend it is that we're seeing? Um, and then looking at our, our eighth grade cohort, um. That's it. It's a big drop off just looking at the seventh graders. Um, they did make gains going from 6 to 7 and then a very marked drop in terms of proficiency in grade eight. And again, something like, how long are they spending taking the test? Um, the effort that's being put in all of those things are pieces that form the picture that we're looking at right now. Uh, but then, you know, also, we are taking a look at our own, um, instructional practices and programing and seeing where it is that we need to strengthen what it is

095that we are providing for students. So I just see an no longer seeing this correctly. So grade eight, the Orange Bar reflects the kids that the eighth graders that took it in 2024. Yeah. So red wire reflects that. Ninth graders that took the eighth grade exam in 2023 and then the 10th graders that took it. Mhm. Okay. So it's not a the how the cohort did. So the orange bar is in seventh grade is the red kids. And then in sixth grade is the blue kids. Yes. Yes. You remember that eighth grade group you saw, like, let's say, through, um, there's about 75 kids that are taking that seventh grade math test. They're not taking the easy math test, because there are an algebra set that also accounts for the significant, significant drop off. So

096we thought that if we have Regents exams, um, and the students who did take the test are single advanced. And what if we do it for fifth grade so just great aren't far. They have 40% proficiency. That same group had a 51%. In level four and 44% the year before. And if you do that and look at it with the intern assessment data, it's a similar pattern. Is that so? Um, again, that's as we start looking at all of the data together and we start looking at what are the trends, what are the things that we are seeing and what is the story that is telling us. That's something that we're going to be looking into. And I'm wondering if this chart is more valuable of them as a cohort. Because if we look at

097all of the things. Sorry. Uh, as we look at all of them, as they get older, they are, like, either not taking the test or they're like, I'm not feeling this. I no longer, you know, we need to do this. So we're seeing the downward trend where it might be a little bit better to see, hey, how did this growth do the last three. Like, are we losing proficiency. I don't know if you can also break it down. Um, year to year looking at the standards that were tested. So the standards that each um, within the tests that we're focused on, um, because that also can fluctuate too, the number of questions that are testing one particular strand versus another can definitely change. Um, and the type of question it is first, and it's a,

098um, construct a response versus multiple choice, something like that. Just so you said that you can see how long the kids took on the same exams and on the star. Can you see how long it took to take in the exams as well in terms of effort, do you see any of these exams are actually more accurate than others? Uh, so that's a great question. And that would be more of an anecdotal, anecdotal piece from teachers and probably, you know, one that we should definitely be adding in as another layer in terms of our discussion. Thank you. I have a question. Just about the intestine. Um, and again, just because thinking about how to increase percentages so we don't double test can to maybe taking the regions. Isn't it giving at like, totally different times

099of the year? Yes. So is that like other. Are there other districts that don't do both? Or are we kind of one of the only ones that we know that would be I would have to make some. Yeah. Find that out. And sure, I expect you to know that now I'm just thinking like. I know. Might not be popular, but like Islam and having such long sitting through it, you know, if it isn't here, how long? If it's a couple of months of horror and these are kids that are known to be like top of the class scholars like. It's just the most likely ones to help dad as well. Maybe, but just putting it out there. Um, just from an outside, you hear a different views of things. Um, what is the stigma around

100the state houses in the community? Because, you know, when they first came out and knocked out options, but then it was put in because, you know, there's a lot of issues with the testing and what it was actually measuring and tying it to, to hormones and all that other stuff. Um, has that changed? I think you know what I mean. So speaking from a building perspective, right. For the last couple of years, uh, we definitely got some letters. You know, 5 or 6 years ago that, um, were a format letter that talked about they didn't want to try to sort of use towards, uh, teacher performance or anything like that. Um, and then the pandemic hit and we sort of had almost hit like a reset button. And so the reasons that people give for

101opting out, um, a lot of times there just isn't. One is just, um, you know, my child is opting out. Uh, some parents do it based on their child's, um, particular, like, social emotional needs or learning needs. Um, and, uh, some of it too is, I think, um, you don't always know that you can, especially when it's your first child, your first time taking these tests. You don't always know that you can opt out. Uh, and I think also depends on the sort of some back to the middle where there is, particularly at the elementary level. You know, it's sort of like one of those first benchmarks that you kind of get a sense of where your kid is falling, you know, um, across the state. And so parents do like to have that information.

102Uh, obviously as they move into middle school and, you know, further up in high school, there are far more tests and, um, scores and things that parents are able to get that feedback from, um, about their or about their student. Uh, whereas at, you know, three through five, this is one of the big measures that you're able to kind of see where your kids is standing. It's difficult, though, because people we talk about the scores aren't good scores, aren't they? And then you wonder if everyone appreciates that. Every Opt-Out matters. Every kid walks out to the second day matters and they probably don't. No one sitting around thinking about this. But if it all matters, it does. And you know, you know, now that the state has changed, uh, format of testing where it's untimed,

103right. Uh, and you we absolutely have students every single year who are testing for hours, um, and, you know, going right up to, you know, the last second. Um, it's it's definitely hard. You know, you don't like to see that, you know, you don't want to see child stressed. But there was some good to when there were, there was time constraints. Um, and, you know, you've really to say. All right, as these towns go, we're we're done. Now. We're moving on. Um, and now it's it's just they they are not indicating the child is not indicating that they are done. You have to allow them to continue to test. But I think that's why the snapshot of the schools is so valuable, because it actually every school is just as well. Every school is just

104going to have kids that are on that whole line. And that's where being able to see where your ranking against that is, is, is so valuable to what, and especially because it's the same test against the same fourth graders. And then you start to be able to see that, um, how they're tracking. I got the last second of that. So just um, some takeaways, action steps going forward. Some of the areas of focus that definitely rose to the top for us. Fluency, number sense, conceptual understanding. Uh, we are seeing fluency come up uh, at every single grade band level. Children are not having that automaticity when they're, you know, trying to even just add 5%. Right. You still have student older students who are counting on fingers. Um, it's just it's not there. So we

105know that those are three big areas that we, um, need to dive deeper into and actually, and, um, strengthen our instructional practices so that we can build stronger students in these three particular areas. Um, we've also done a shift, uh, pedagogically, particularly at the elementary level, towards that emphasis on small group instruction. And so as part of our MTS plan, revise meant we really wanted to focus in on better tier one instruction, but also that tier two piece, an intervention that happens within the classroom. So one of the things that in many of our elementary classrooms started, um, practicing was the idea of like center based teaching. Right? So students are moving through different centers within the classrooms. They during the math block, and they're also getting small group instruction daily with their teacher and

106their the, um, things that they are working on are meant to challenge them appropriately. So they're structured, um, for them to practice things like fluency, their things to help challenge them and push them forward. But they're also getting that, um, small group piece with their teacher daily. And that really does help support the needs that they have at that moment. Okay. So moving on now to our region's exams. Our current graduation requirements require students to pass these or for Regents exams. Uh, algebra one English Living environment and uh, global uh for social science. And you can see our percentage passing for last year within these four regions exams. Um, something to just make note of the algebra one and the living environment numbers also take into account the middle school, um, honors students who would

107be taking those regents as well. And um, living environment is one of um the exams that students can. Uh, wide uptake in multiple times. And what we see is that for a lot of our students who are English language learners, that is one of, uh, that is the core Regents exam that they are taking multiple times and trying to pass it so that they can meet those graduation requirements. This. So one. I looked ahead and I see that we don't do the comparison with the other schools, which I do think is important because this is a benchmark test that everybody has to take. I think what is interesting is, um, you know, math is math. So if you're an MBA student, you know, like there's some things, but you do have social studies and you

108have English, you know, like there is like so you would see kind of like if you if you're potentially I know grammar and stuff like that, you've got those um, to the gap and in grammar for a while with um some of our programs. But um, like a 10% and 11% difference in English and globally is kind of interesting. You can take a little while in your other languages. You can't. And are we seeing kids do that. And so that's that's our gap. Yeah. And you can't take living environment. That is not good. You get had had English. I was a and getting English. I got that one time but it hasn't, but I can. Why this living in? Why would living in. Why is living environment in such a stumble? If you could take

109it in your own language. So it's the academic vocabulary and the content. Knowledge is not always. Especially some of our students that maybe say students coming to us from the gap in schooling. Um, it's it's it's not even as much the language, the language as it is. Yeah. Terminology. Yeah. All right. But what it's well, like, because you're just history seems to be that or just that's an easier subject. Connect. Yeah. And I mean what the next slide um, talks about the plus one. So I know we have students sit for the different assessments. Um, but we see more success with the U.S. history of because of which might not be specific to our Ells, um, but to definitely students abroad. Uh, so just to point out the Earth science number, science is a it's

110a harder exam. It is one that can struggle with. Um, and as the science standards are changing and, um, the trajectory of what a science program should be, those discussions are happening. And changing Earth science is actually, um, shifting towards the end of that trajectory, uh, as opposed to being the beginning. So that's a that's another just piece of the puzzle. Earth science is something that our students pertaining. I don't understand what that means shifting towards the end of the trajectory. And so if you think about it more traditionally, um, like physics being something kids would take later on in high school, now physics would be something that they would be taking up front and as monster or science moving towards. And I would say that, you know, like wherever you stand on living environment

111being, it sounds great. Our kids are actually the ones that are in there now are getting lost because the standards like so now you have seventh and eighth graders that are literally going to be last going into high school because it's such, uh, you know, ambiguous curriculum that that teachers now are grasping that I've seen it. And as a parent of that, that it's they're trying their best, but there's just nothing there because it's just like a pause year for these kids, right? So I think we're going to start to see that potentially play out for everyone, but potentially play out in the next four years that these kids are in high school in their science class. Our science teachers, uh, are on top of it. There's a lot of work that is being done

112to prepare for those shifts and to plan for them. Um, live sessions taking place in Brewster High School just around scheduling. And how do we best match teachers with the classes, and what is the best plan for students? And, you know, it's ongoing. But you're right. It's it's something that will impact everyone. And, um, it's still something that's developing and evolving to. So, um, any other questions on the plus one? So children, students, right now, in order to graduate you have to have this for for regents plus one of these. No. I just think that being able to see the comparison with other districts helps us better understand how our students and our teachers are performing. And then the other thing is being and this goes for this. And a few like, you know, I,

113Scott and I both taught geometry. My kids have 50% pass rate. His kids had a 70% pass rate. Like are we giving that information? Is that part of our conversations with our teachers to be able to understand, you know, like and if all other things are fairly equal in terms of it was a general in class, it was this class. But being able to say, like, what do you need to do differently to make certain that you are pushing, you know, about the level, uh, for those kids. And much like what's happening when you look at the the elementary data, those conversations are starting to work their way into the secondary level as well, because they are that is important data to look at. Um, because you're right, you could be your neighbor could be

114doing something that it just differently from you. And it's it's hitting the kids much better than what you're doing. And we can all learn from that. So as we move on into our AP exams. Uh, looking at we have the blue bar represents the total number of, uh, AP students for that particular year. The total number of exams um, students sat for. Um, so students could be taking multiple AP classes, which is why they have a higher number of exams and total students. And then the number, um, of students who scored a three or above. Uh, one thing that is important to note is, um, this doesn't account for kids who are in dual enrollment classes. Students could be taking AP classes and choose not to sit for those exams. It's not a requirement that

115they take the AP exam. Um, and there are kids who elect not to each year for a lot of different reasons. Um, but this is how we are, um, looking at our AP participation over the, um, the last four years, five years, and, um, you know, really wanting to make sure that that experience is available to all students who want to participate in it so that they are experiencing a different level of rigor in terms of their work and their expectation. Um, the idea behind AP is really helping to prepare them for that college level work next. So, uh, we want to make sure that, you know, students who want to challenge themselves and take that on have the opportunity to do so. And, um, you know, we've been happy to see the overall participation

116really remain steady throughout the years. And, um, you know, even the number of tests that students are choosing to take has been increasing over the last couple of years as well. Education one. When you exist, the number of potential tests or the outnumber actual number of tests that were taken. Actual number of tests that were taken. Okay. And then in terms of enrollment in AP courses, open door open. So I have a fundamental disagreement with how this put this type of data. So let's just focus on 2024 to that 253 kids. Um, of that though, those kids, you know, maybe one of them took one test. Uh, one of them took two and one more for free. Um, and then if at any point in time, if I took three and I got a three

117on one, but I got a one on the other two, I'm counted in that 181. So we're cumulatively counting those kids like, you know, as, as a three, even though they got ones on their other two tests. So I just don't think that that's an accurate depiction. I understand opening the door. I, you know, like I think that there's very much an opportunity for teachers to be able to see how they did, how they did compared to other schools, how they are doing to the average, because parents are looking at that. Teachers can see that, no, I a college board, I know that and I'm saying that parents are looking at that. But I think that this depiction of the data is always rather wonky, because I don't think that that orange bar is telling

118us if my kid got A11 and a three, it doesn't. It's not telling us it's out of the 481 test students. Right? So part of what, um, our philosophy with this open enrollment, along with, like, this conversation and counseling for students, indigenous experience is we know Asian experience is very different. That you all know is that we're not going to get stuff on the other. The end result is many students engage in that in those courses because they want to put in other transcripts, and then they want to be able hopefully to get a three or higher in order to put that out to a college or university. If a student, if the college or university accepts that score, uh, some, uh, some schools don't accept threes, you probably, as you know, um, some don't

119accept 4 or 5. Some say, okay, we'll accept it, but we won't accept it in that content area that it came from. Right. So we it the count as like credit. So our philosophy with advanced placement is absolutely we want to get better and wants for us to improve, for our kids to be able to have the best shot when they are applying for school, to be able to say, okay, this count towards credit. It's also the experience we like, the experience, the rigorous experience of an AP course. That's why we have this open enrollment where we're saying, um, that as many students should try it as possible. It's a hard message to to say we're we're going to nail you on your AP smile, but we're going to we're going to spend a lot

120of time saying, why are these scores higher and higher and higher? And at the same time saying, anybody can take it. You know, students who might be, I guess, okay. But I'm I'm just going to say that just as a parent of children along a very big spectrum of capabilities and not even capabilities, um, uh, caring about their academic rigor, I know. So that AP crew and I know the majority of them are really trying. So, you know, a lot of kids are not going to throw their hat into that ring because they don't want to to do that level of work that is demanded of that. Whether you take the test at the at the end or not, um, versus, you know, that that group of kids for, you know, nine out of ten

121and I, I know a lot of them really well, like, I know that they are trying. So I don't see a ton of kids because all I have in my spectrum, I have other kids and I'm pushing, pushing, pushing that have really high capabilities but don't want to do that, that level of work. So the one thing is, is that if we say that we took 480 tests and we should know how many kids got threes out of that 483 test versus what kid got one three on their three tests. And number two from a teaching perspective. Got it on opening it up and having it. But we also do know that there are areas of Brewster where our test scores are lower than other districts. And we have to make certain that those teachers

122are figuring out, because if you are there for an AP, you better be able to get a kid that wants to work that has two aptitude over the line versus, uh, you know, pretty much just like those, you know, 60% of the kids really didn't make it. And they and they were a nerd group. And I say nerd with a lot of love, but, like, if they're a nerd group that wanted to do well and 60% of them didn't have, we got a fundamental problem. And and having conversations over the years with the with the high school, they know where the pressure points are and, um, are where there can be better results. And the parents know that the parents go and look exactly at. All for life. I love our kids. Our kids didn't

123pass, and my kid came home and told me that, uh, I'm only learning from the textbook and I'm not learning this and I'm not of that. That is the thing that we have to make sure. So, yeah, allowing every kid to be able to jump in. But we know if the, if we, if our kids aren't passing because nine out of ten of those kids in that class is looking for that credit and looking to take that test, and our kids aren't passive. I'll be guiding our kids them and teaching them along with the tests. Instead of saying, we'll take all the tests. Take all the classes you want. You can. Yes, we know for. Focus on a small selection and do really well. I think that will go. So I. Speaking, as, you know,

124an educator in the district, but also the parent. Um, having gone through this and still going through it with my own children. Um, our guidance counselors at a high school do a tremendous job in, in trying to work with students and guide them and give them advice as best they can in terms of course selection and what makes the most sense for them. You also then have what the student wants to do. Right? And so for. For some kids, they may really strongly believe that if they're taking five apes, that looks better on a college transcript, regardless of how they didn't in those classes, then if they didn't take those AP classes. Um, you also have that perspective to among among some parents where they themselves are pushing their kids to take more, um, perhaps,

125than what their student may want to do or than what is best for their kid to take, um, because of their own goals for their child or their perceptions on what works or doesn't work in terms of a college application process. So it's a very, uh, fine line to walk. And while, you know, the the counselors and teachers can make their recommendations, you know, students and parents can ultimately decide what it is that they want to do in terms of, you know, class selection and, um, the types and number of apps that they're taking. I was just going to speak to that. You can get them all you want their slogan and take 5 or 6 ads. And then what ends up happening is they get into schools where they realize their forecast force won't

126count, and on test day, they crack and they don't do it. Or I had classes. I had 75 kids, namely psych, in a very small district. There's no way 75 kids should be named besides my grades. My scores came out like 13 ones, but I also have 13 fours. So you know it's indicative of that. But if you're just looking at the score, like if you're just looking at the numbers or just, again, the scores that come from Polish word, you're not seeing that element of it as well, especially if you have an open door policy. Yeah. So I like you. There's, there's only I think it's, it's there's a lot of context around there's a demand especially in terms of abuse. Yeah. Um, and all of that as I teach apps, I great apps,

127I have the kids have the nervous breakdowns in my classrooms because they teach me and they're taking stuff they don't want to take. Um, no, they have this belief. So, I mean, there's only the numbers of the numbers, especially, I think with AP exams, they get completely skewed, skewed, because you're also not only looking at seniors, you're looking at some some freshman of the freshman to go in there, sophomores, juniors and seniors. And so the first time you sit down for an AP test as a sophomore and most of the time as a history test, it's a ginormous test. And they don't don't necessarily know what they're getting into. Um, in terms of and I think they're not taught like they're taught the skills and they're taught all of that. But the pressure of that

128they can is chomping at the end. I think when you marry that, but if you marry scores with anecdotal understanding of what's actually going on with those kids, like when you get into the AP track, like you literally know these are the these are the these are the teachers that you're gonna, you're going to be able to do well on. I mean, even looking at the physics region, I know it's a subset and you shouldn't take physics. Plus you have a line for physics. I got like a 65 on my body, just, um, for chemistry for. Yeah, but it's it's added. It's taking those test scores plus the anecdotal. My point is, we know the superstar teachers and we know the ones that are mediocre. How do you make those mediocre ones? Not just test

129scores, but test scores plus all the other stuff that you're hearing. And then, you know, in the schools, how do you make them better teachers to be able to make certain that they're getting more kids over the line, whether it be Regents, whether it be AP, whether it be any anything that we're stopping, we are not going to agree on. So I'm just going to move on from that. Okay. All right. So moving forward, um. You know, when we talk about district wide efforts, uh, we have articulation meetings. Uh, our teachers are asking for them. We most recently had a really great sixth child math articulation meeting. Um, that group of teachers came back and wants to want to set up more regular meetings with that. Um, Mr. Rodriguez and similar, uh, really have worked

130to align, um, uh, meeting times among the two schools to allow teachers to be able to do that vertical articulation more easily. Uh, which has been great. And, um, again, it's all of these points coming through those discussions and the learning that teachers are doing in those meetings, all will lend itself to better experiences and outcomes for our students. Um, we're, you know, really taking a good, hard look to make sure that our curriculum pedagogical adjustments are matching standards. So we know, you know, our science standards are changing. And, um, Doctor Chris Blanco, who congratulations to her and her award is our department chair at the high school and is really leading the charge in that. Um, and she's not just worried about high school. You know, she's looking all the way down at, you

131know, to towards kindergarten on what does our science program look like here in Brewster, K12 and how are we going to be supporting teacher wise, each other going forward so that our students are coming into each grade level prepared and ready and being able to meet those standards? Um, and really investing in professional learning, giving teachers not only time to talk with, time to learn with and from each other. So what, um, you know, what are things that we can bring in for teachers, making sure teachers are, um, getting out to workshops, you know, I boces and really so, uh, participating things that are current and help to support what they are currently doing and seeing in the classroom and then curriculum reviews. We spoke to this a little bit during our literacy presentation. Um,

132right now our our K-5 team just met on Friday for our literacy uh, program review for, uh, the elementary level. Um, and math is next and math is, is K-8. Because what also came out of our articulation meetings with our secondary teachers is their desire to really look at their program as well, in light of looking at data. And, um, as we're embarking on those curricular reviews and decision making, we're not looking at it in, um, a vacuum and making sure that we have input from stakeholders across the K-12 curriculum continuum and getting feedback from teachers, asking for feedback from um staff and parents, and really trying to get a a more cohesive vision as to what our students need, what our teachers need, and making sure that we can support them. So really trying

133to involve all stakeholders in that. And um. Using our data to really drive those decisions. Because we can't argue with numbers. And, um, we definitely are able to see regardless of context, we're able to see trends and we're able to see, um, to gather feedback from that data. And that's important for us to use as we move forward and make program decisions and adjustments. All right. Yeah. So, um, real quickly. And I didn't land heavy vegetation. Uh, but did you think about letting our curriculum instruction and instructional and assessment based programs or look like we'll look like forward? We've talked a lot about the Blue Ribbon Commission and the recommendations that they have. Uh, coming out. The next slide is a timeline that they share when the recommended implementation, uh, points would be. Um, but

134in thinking about all of the assessments that we just, um, talked about, um, let's talk about the Regents assessment, that would be a little bit easier. Um, those will still be part of that will also be an option, but they won't be a requirement in order for students to graduate. So all these other pieces that we're looking at in terms of, uh, shadowing and internship and even alternative ways for students to demonstrate their learning will become even more important. Uh, especially starting with the current sixth grade class, those will be the first ones that will see that decoupling of the Regents exams with the graduation requirements, the naming by the timeline and how we're moving forward. We expect some exciting things. Um, we definitely need to learn some more around, um, what? It's like a,

135um, a statewide transcript will look like, um, and also how our profile, The Graduate, uh, jives with what the state is, is putting forward. But we're feeling very good about the implementation timeline here and that, you know, we think about, um, how if there is any sort of incentive or if we can advocate for any sort of incentive, we would love to be able to be sort of at the forefront of this, given where we are with vision 2026 and how we're moving forward. But, um, shifting to regionalization because that, um, that advocacy and what we're asking for in that report, that student learning, um, definitely impacts our, um, instructional program. So I think the board for, um, you know, giving the green light for us to be able to submit that with the idea

136that we can always opt out later if we if the plan that's developed is not something that we, we want. Um, one other here are the things that we're advocating for in that report. Um, if there is any sort of, um, way to incentivize early adoption, if there are ways for students to, um, maybe not have to, uh, pass by Regents exams and maybe ask for and that plus one could be, uh, again, like an internship experience or some sort of portfolio system market. We would even jump on that. We talked earlier about the importance of CTE. We would love to see some additional funding for that. Um, our work based learning coaches, same sort of thing that allows for students to be able to earn, um, high school credit. Um, Mr. Carlson brought this

137up. Um, you know, we we're fortunate enough to receive the expansion grant, which is at $10,000 for 90 seats. We have 100 and, um, an 880. So we have one section at Saint James has actually the 5400. So wouldn't it be great now just to bring that last section up to par with the rest? But for us allowed it to also to allow us to think about some other pre-K expenses that we might be able to incorporate into that. And then today, I just I just saw a brief snippet of, um, the governor's, uh, state of the state budget. You talked about, um, an increase in and that's how funding. We would love to, of course. Um, have maybe, uh, a satellite itself like each building or to have some sort of resource for all

138of our, our citizens, people that access. Anymore. I don't have any question. And we asked him along the way. Okay. It was good. Thank you very much. We do appreciate how much time and effort goes into these presentations. So thank you very much for being so. Okay, we will move to our first opportunity for public remarks. And this is. This public remarks period is limited to items on r r action items, which is d on our agenda. Um, so for this public remarks, period, it's just public remarks that you may have about those action items. So if anyone has any remarks we just ask that you go to the podium, um, state your name. Every speaker has three minutes to make remarks they'd like to make. Can we just ask that you direct those remarks

139to the board and not identify any students or staff in those comments? So if anybody has any public remarks, uh, you can make your way to the podium, Scott. Maybe you could. I mean, Mayor Rush, never more intimidating when you're all the way up here. Thanks, Scott. Um, okay. I don't see anyone for, um, in-person public remarks, and we did not receive any emails about budget, uh, action items. So we're going to move to action items. Action item number one. Approval of change orders for security vestibule, new synthetic turf field and track replacement project. Um, and there are five different change orders listed. Yes. So, uh, these change orders were summarized in, uh, last week's update. Just urgent and quickly GC general construction, uh, zero one $12,000 for additional excavation and relocation of underground pipes.

140Uh, the security vestibule JC zero two $19,000 for the additional reinforcement of the walkway bridges. Uh, entering the, uh science links at high school. MTA mechanical contractor at $10,000 credit. So, um, reimbursement to the district for purchasing a smaller Hvac rooftop unit. AC site contractors oh one $25,000 for costs associated with relocating soil to the Star Playground and leveling that area for our new playground. AC 0 to $60,000 for the installation of additional safety netting sleeves along field number eight. So just a little more, uh, application of that. Um, that's a, uh, one that we'd recommended. The, uh, original design had safety net in just between 20 the details. We requested to have the, uh, netting along the entirety of the track so that, uh, folks are walking track while there's a game room. Uh,

141and the going on the of, uh, just want to note that every capital project budget includes construction contingency, uh, which is, uh, in anticipation of change orders presented to you. Uh, see you click here. Okay. Thank you. Can I have a motion and a second for this item? Lee on the motion. And John, second, any questions or comments just within the, um, within the contingency. Where where are we? Because I know we're fluctuating up and down. We have some good news and bad news. Um, yeah. So so when we get to this point, um, so now we lock in, um, per project. So with respect to this project, the, uh, spirit of us, generally speaking, the in between 5 and 10% construction contingency, I think this represents less than 1% of, uh, you know, that

142total. Thanks. Any other questions you have? Just like also to point out, if anyone's noticed a giant pile of dirt at the end of the field that's high quality topsoil under Mr. Firestone, well, on the site is safe to use later, as opposed to be trucked up and moved around, and we would have to pay for it and move it somewhere else so that, uh, the actual savings number wise. But it's something that, you know, you protected. I thought you were offering to case I. Don't tell everybody. It's nice. Now we're going to be at the fence. Okay? Demonstrate that. You all right? Those questions. All right, let's go to the vote. All those in favor? Uh, six. Those against zero one. Abstentions myself. Um. And so that motion passes. 601 action. Item number two,

143disposal of district property facilities. Department of public. Uh, yes. I mentioned this in my earlier presentation. Uh, we're disposing of our, uh, from odor, which is well over 20 years in replacement, uh, 31. Okay. Thank you. Can I have a motion and a second for this item? Scott on the motion. Jamie on second, any questions or comments? Seeing Nemo go to the vote. All those in favor? Motion passes seven zero. Action item number three. Vendor specific credit cards. Additional. User temporary. Uh, yes. So at the October 8th meeting, we requested an additional user as we had an employee who was going out on medical leave. Uh, that employees now return. So they're asking to now, uh, rescind and approve that, uh, additional user of the, uh, uh, our district, uh, source specific card. Okay. Thank

144you. Can I have a motion and a second for this items, Melissa, on the motion and the interim second, any questions or comments? See. Now we'll go to the vote. All those in favor? Motion passes seven zero. Action. Item number four. Dissolution of liability. Reserve and transfer of capital reserve. Yeah. So, uh, late last fall, we were informed, um, that the, um, Mr. Classics, uh, had sold their, uh, their property, which then allowed them to, uh, reimburse the county for, uh, back property taxes. The county had, uh, paid to the school district. So therefore, uh, releasing that liability that we had established, uh, so the board created in 2023 a light liability reserve in anticipation that we would have paid back the county for me as well. Um, since that, um, uh, property was sold

145and, and the county was being all liability, which is not excessive and allows us to release the liability, reserve the right to transfer it to our calculations. Okay. Thank you. Can I have a motion and a second? Scott, I'm a motion, so be on the second. Any questions or comments? Obviously. Good news. Um, capital reserve fund. Is that going to be used for this credit project or should we save that for future Park. So anything that's in the capital reserve at this point remains there until voter approved to be allocated for home improvements. Um, so we're so we have the ability to continue to fund it. However, in order to draw down on to use it to apply, it requires, uh, a resolution board and a vote on the. That necessarily enabled or that could

146be at any time voltage. It could be at any time. Um, and it'll be a topic of conversation on our February 4th, uh, Copper Project workshop. Second. Any other questions? Comments? All right, let's go to the vote. All those in favor? Motion passes seven zero. Action item number five. Acceptance of donations a United Way of Business or Education nomination. The district is very thankful to the Booster Foundation for their generous donation of $12,040. These grants will help supplement learning experiences and materials for students throughout the district. We're also grateful to the United Way for their generous donation of food, clothing and hygiene items to our Bears Essentials program. Um, and you're sitting in for your food. Okay. Thank you. I have a motion, and a second was on the motion. John. Second. Any questions or

147comments? Seeing none. We go to the vote. All those in favor? Motion passes seven zero. Action. Item number six. Approval of Memorandum of agreement with the Brewster Teachers Association regarding the middle school auditorium. Uh, yes. This MoU establishes the role of the middle school, the child or the toy organizer, and the associated stipend. Additional information was provided for the fire. Okay. Thank you. Can I have a motion and a second? Cynthia on the motion. And, Scott, um, a second. Any questions or comments? Jenny. So I read, uh, what was provided to the board and what do they coordinate, like different outsiders coming in. It's really within the building. And also city staff who at times uses the walls of the forum. Um, so it's making sure that the space is available and setting up the

148space of 20 minutes, whatever event speakers, um, etc. may be taking place during school, but also outside of school hours. So if I'm filling that role and you tell me that you're going to need it for this afternoon, and we need three tables and three microphones, I'm doing microphone correct. Technical equipment. Correct. Yeah. Uh, sound acceptance. Make sure it's all set. So this person has to have the wherewithal, um, being able uh, where do I go to get this stuff, get it and set it up and do all this stuff? Yes. And then whomever this is offered to will actually have that privilege. Oh, yes, I do, thank you. Is that similar to the packet? Do you think we have high school for the package? A little different because that one is used a great

149deal with outside groups was it was a little socially it house warehouse versus was a packet use um in house bill. So it was all. Right. Any other questions to chat okay. Let's go to the vote. All those in favor? Motion passes seven. Moving on to the consent agenda. Yeah. So one thing to highlight, uh, with regards to tonight's consent agenda is I'm happy to show we have nine substitutes that we're starting. Um, well, that's hopefully tomorrow. There are no strangers to us. Some have students, coach or several have taken legal replacements. And, uh, a few of them also DHS graduates. However, we're always in need of some support positions, not just teachers. So if anyone listening or knows or wants to join our support, please reach out to my office. Um, but just wanted

150to put them. All right. Thank you. Can I have a motion and a second for this notice on the motion. Moving on. Second, any questions or comments? Seeing none, we'll go to the vote. All those in favor? Motion passes, seven zero. All right. Uh, second time for public remarks. Again, if anyone has any remarks at this. This period is not limited to our action items or anything on our agenda. We just ask that you make your comments from the podium. All speakers have three minutes to make their remarks. Uh, please state your name and identify any staff or students by name. So if anyone has any public remarks this evening, please make your way to the podium. All right. I don't see. We don't have anyone in person, um, who has any remarks. So we'll

151close public remarks and just S&P up for you to address emails shorter. Um, we have two emails. One came in December 18th, um, from a committee member thanking, um, the district for the forum that we had on, um, extracurricular, um, and then buttocks and, um, saying that there were a lot of important topics that were touched upon. And what really struck this community member was the idea of serving parents and players on the planet teams. Um, feeling like that could give a lot of, uh, really good information to the district. Getting that insight would be very beneficial. Um, for the others. Yes. Thank you. So I'll answer that. And, um, I'll echo. Thanks for, um, the the panel of coaches and advisors and administrators, um, that participated that night, as well as the community for

152the strong showing. I thought it was a really positive two way conversation around, um, we're able to clear up some things to talk about, um, what we talk a little bit in the future. So that was that was great. Um, this idea of surveys has come up a few times. And so we're in discussions about how we would do this. Right. Have to be careful with, um, collective bargaining implications, but it's definitely, um, what we're it's that kind of, um, discussion. And then another email came in on January 13th, um, asking about sports being posted on social media, um, Instagram, uh, and wondering if there could be, um, more equity in, in. Hosting all of the different winter sports. Yes. Thank you. I think that parent for writing and that we, um. Mr. Borrego and

153I spoke and, uh, you know, parents, right? You can always do more in promoting, um, our students and, and, uh, student athletes. Um, and the question is how. Right. So how do we, um, who would would have the primary responsibility for that? Um, but we are we're examining where we can pull that those resources from. Um, however, the athletic department also has some ideas. Um, is reached out to some students and advisors, and they'll hope to sort of organically mobilize that energy to, um, to make to have some additional recognition. When you think about, um, the fall and football right back again for the sport of vertigo, irony said, yes. Um, it's like, uh, but I mean, how is there a student excitement that we can, um, can get going that could show up at

154games and matches in order to do that? So we're we're also in the planning phases of that. Okay. Thank you. Uh, so moving on to board remarks or committee updates. Anyone have anything they want to share tonight? I have two questions. Still less about, um, updates. So, uh, I do have two questions. Um, first question is, um, the North Samsung decision on football? What other sports do we have with them? Um, I you might not be prepared. I know it's not clear, but it would be really interesting to understand what other sports were collaborating with them on. Um, because, you know, maybe it's not worth our while to do it. I do think hockey I do want, um, I have to get the exact list from 2023. I think hockey made it something positive. Yes,

155exactly. And then the second one is, um. I think we've made incredible, um, traction in getting all sports to communicate on sports do. Is that a requirement? And can we if it is, can we please remind every sport that they need to be, uh, communicating via schedule, uh, and everything like that? Um, sports. You can have a prominent role on that as well. I don't think it's a requirement in terms of like contract language, but I know that Mr. Grado, um, has it as an expectation and shares. So, um, so let we send out another reminder. Um, yeah. Try to do that. Awesome. Thanks. Anybody else. First uh, couple, um, port related updates as a lot of, uh, items coming up and with visualizations, uh, the budget coming out, there's a lot of things that

156we should be paying attention to and getting involved. And, um, at the end of this month, unrelated to us of may impact having their own safety symposium, the school where is going to be there um, going to be very similar to what we had and I was going to try to attend, I would say about is that the person say, uh, what we do as opposed to how many impact us as we are neighboring districts. Uh, also at the end of the month, on the 30th, uh, they are having their annual legislative forum, which assume, I believe it's a Thursday night, and they're going to have a lot of local assemblymen and representatives available. And it's more of a fly on the wall concept where we're going to sit there and listen to what their

157priorities are and satisfy their. Rick. Uh, Wes otherwise to that. So our assemblymen or senators algorithms know what the schools are. So this is something we should pay attention to. And I would, uh, that anybody's balance with these, uh, guidelines for that, um, relates to that also. And next month, all the, um, lobbying. Yes. So there's, uh, was putting a lot of the other groups as are making their way a problem on the seventh. That's a zoom virtual conference where you can sign in and be projected alive. And obviously, it's a lot of work to take time off to go to Albany. This is something that if somebody has some time to show representation so that these people know that we're serious about these things called harmless, uh, mental health in our schools, this year

158is going to be a funny budget with the governor. So this one we get to the more I, we we have. The actual lobby day will be, uh, February 10th. Uh, of course, that's going to require people to travel to office. And that is very difficult for most people. But it's just something to keep in mind. You need to, uh, represent and also ensure that the West Palm represents a meeting beforehand so we can make sure they know what are these are what our concerns are so they can pass them on as well. Um. Want to highlight some of the items that we've been going through here on a talk at the writing program. Now, as we know it, it's pointed out that Baraka. Um. These levels. I want to ask from you perspective. I

159believe the five finishers in the air rifle competition will replace the lost for the fifth. And this is not just regional. These are representatives of large groups from Europe, other areas. I mean, this is an incredible competition. And I believe of the five top finishers, they're all young women. So that is another high point that we have to put out there. And I was approached by, um, at Southeast Town meeting, and uh, superintendent is very connected to the community, is probably going to reach out and ask for some type of make a presentation to our wonderful students. And so I'm sure I haven't told it to reach the district office, but this is something that we have to highlight our students, these accomplishments that they've done that relate to the Roxy. This past Sunday was

160a VFW breakfast. This is the one that represented or paid out to the right, said the turnout from the Rod Stewart is incredible, and the fact that we have four of us just throw people party down the street. And this was a representation of these young men and women. State set up them in the kitchen. They were working at that. And they're also working with our veterans. So they're in the kitchens talking to our veterans, getting works for them, learning how to do things and just hanging out with the veterans. So I this connection that they're building, uh, as a corporate, I am I want to uh, I'll point out, uh, so there's just a couple the town effort is going on. Um, the village of Brewster is going to be holding a talk on.

161Our streets coming up once again, they're going to be reaching out to possibly every little thing. So that's what's coming up in the village. And they're trying to pitch how we come from this. I don't know. But, uh, a lot of the community is is involved in this and planning board for Mr. Carlson. Uh, the distribution center is starting to come online. I believe there's a if you are driving to Walmart in Connecticut, you passed by this giant popular thing on the same road. Evil or something like that. They're moving into the warehouse, so there's one person in that warehouse, but the road is still not complete. Anybody who's driven on that road knows how horrifying it is, is it not? I believe it's actually the taco because you can't have cold water. So there's

162probably going to be some type of body system that's still on there. One of the reasons it's so strange was the response in no way. But there is still work on that related to that. And. State backtrack on governor recently. They vetoed the idea. So the idea bill would have a representative from the superintendent of the school board on a local call, which was sent in to the House of Representatives for whatever reason. This is something we're going to have to bring up again and just a short representation. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. No one else. Okay. And you have something. Um, Jen and I had, um, attended the meeting, um, of the commissioner at hostess as well. And, um, it was great to hear that talk and and to just kind of

163listen to their perspective on the, uh, regionalization and a lot of the disinformation that may be out there around it. And so we had kind of owned that they need to do some rebranding to clear up some of those misunderstandings. Um, so that was just my takeaway from it. So. I think it was a great conversation for that. And, um, understanding some of that miscommunication, separation. Um, they also talked a bit more about, uh, for, uh, graduation, new graduation requirements. Um, I think Lisa's on the right path getting there. Um, and it was. All right. Great. Thank you to both of you. That seems like that was so long, but I actually there's no. I'm sorry. I remember I seriously was you for. You remember you went to that. Um. But thank you for attending

164that. Um, okay, so our upcoming meetings, our next meeting is January 28th. We have a work session on February 4th. I assume that starts at 630. Yeah. And that's, uh, Victor mentioned related to Robert. Uh, capital projects, um, and work sessions are open to the public and they will be streamed. Um, okay. If anyone has any remarks that they want to share with the board and superintendent, you can do so by sending an email to BOE at Brewster schools.org. And, uh, yeah, I just need a motion to adjourn the meeting. And second, Scott on the motion and John second, all those in favor? Motion passes seven zero. Thanks, everyone. Have a good night.